Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Missing good friends will always create vacuum in one's heart. This vacuum has already started developing in my heart as well. My first and good friends in South Africa Vish and Varadh are leaving for India in 10 days. We met them first in 2008, January at Chianti, sunninghill where they were our neighbors. They are a very rare kind of ppl i.e. Totally good at heart, the most humble, the most friendliest etc.etc... . It’s so hard to find someone who is so emotional towards every other person in the family like Pavithra Varadh. All the three are so modern yet religious and their attachment towards their family is marvelous. I wish them all the very best and hope to continue their friendship wherever they are in this world....

Miss you all!

Thank you very much for the beautiful Sunflowers and wonderful vase! The vase will always remind us of u folks! Flowers may fade but not our friendship!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Do you like this fancy title? Well title courtesy ,my blog guru "HARI".

Has anyone ever tried attending music classes like me? I wonder!

My mother is a great fan of carnatic music and wanted me to become atleast a kolu singer...

Here are my attempts to learn music!

Trial 1: My first attempt to learn music started at the age of 5, in Pattukottai. (the first trial I believe) My teacher asked me to come the following year..since she felt it was too early.

Pattukottai was close to Thiruvaiyaru.Out of sheer interest my mom took me there during aaradhanai. What I can remember now is a river , the container in which we took yummy puliyodharai , Kunnakudi playing violin, Mandalin sreenivas as a very young boy. I enjoyed sleeping in mandapam.

Trial 2: My second attempt began on an auspicious day,whereby I visited my teacher and paid due respects to her.I was asked to come for regular classes then on.

I attended classes for few days before which my father got transferred to tirunelveli and with that my second attempt to learn music ended abruptly.

Trial 3: It was my mother who though not classically trained, would always ask me to follow some of the songs she used to sing.In Tirunelveli at last we found a music master and my mom was more than happy. My brothers used to drop and pick me up from the class. He tried impressing me with chocolates and sweets, though I never liked chocolates and would eat the one given by him for his sake! I was attending classes regularly.Time came when the master had planned for a trip to Bombay for LFC. My teacher fell sick after his Bombay trip and passed away eventually.This triggered the sense of humour of my brothers. They would tease me saying that I killed my master with my voice. So there came an end as other music teachers were in places far away from my house. Thus drawing an end to an unsuccessful third attempt to learn music.

Trial 4: I gave a long break to my trials and made my next attempt when I was in college. When I was studying B.Sc,my parents found violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman's sister who was living nearby. My mother went for enquiry. They wanted students for music exams. My mom thought that would be too much for me. So this attempt ended even before it started.

Trial 5: One day while going for a walk in Annanagar, a "Music classes taken" board attracted my mom. She enquired and I joined. The teacher encouraged me a lot and said that I had a good voice. One day to my utter shock I noticed a hearing aid in her ears, which I had not seen all those days. I realised that she was partially deaf.I came home and told my mom in whispers that the teacher had hearing problems. The worst part was My brothers heard the whole story and galatta started all over again.They teased me saying that the teacher beared with me because she was deaf. I stopped going to classes then on thus putting an end to fifth unsuccessful attempt to learn music.

Trial 6:I was studying MCA during this attempt. One of my relatives finally found Mr.Jayaraman(famous for his katha kalatchebam on radio).His wife was a renowned music teacher. I loved going to music classes for the first time in life.This went on for quite some time, but as luck would have it this teacher shifted her house to a new place where there was a vet downstairs.One day an unleashed dog started chasing me as I opened the gate and my cynophobia brought an end to an unsuccessful attempt to learn music.

It was fun time again for my brothers as they teased the hell out of me remarking that even dog could not bear my voice!

Trial 7: I was already married during this attempt and was living in Baroda.My previous music teacher's daughter was taking music classes there. Finally I got her address. Srinath ...my husband used to come home very very late and most of the times was out of station. When everything settled and the routine looked like normal, I planned for attending classes.This time it was Srinath who got transferred and this also ended even before it started.

I am still looking for a music teacher who can quench my thirst for music!

Friday, February 5, 2010

As Voltaire says "Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well". I was just thinking about this truth. What came to my mind is that my father's policy of taking only the positive qualities from other person. If we can find the positive things we will automatically start appreciating them,which in turn would help us fine tune ourselves to attain greatness, which is voltaire's philosophy too.

How often do we appreciate things in life? Self appreciation is motivation when done with care. Ego is just few inches away from self motivation. So one should be careful in this act of self appreciation. It helps us to do self examination too. Do we speak softly to others, how cool were we when a situation leading to angerness arised, how regular are we in our daily routines are some of the things that we can include in our life for assessing the self dicipline. If we can appreciate ourself for our good I strongly feel it improves our quality of life.

Appreciating others for their gestures or skills, will make us try and adopt those qualities. No one in this world will be a gelous person. It also paves a learning platform in one's life. Appreciate friends, the happiness they get is transferred to us as well. They try to improve themselves too.Appreciation will lead to sharing and thus we start learning from them. We keep appreciating famous musicians, sports personalities,leaders and we forget about people around us.Let us start practicising this today.

It would be appropriate to conclude with Mother Teresa's quote "There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” So lets start appreciating and be kind to others.